Choking. Sick, wet gurgles.
I spin around and lose my footing as I watch the ground rise up to attack the agents.
Sharp knives of black metal slash up from the dirt, protruding with such force and speed that they’d be impossible to dodge. There’s one for each agent, the tip of which slams into their bodies and doesn’t stop until it juts back out the tops of their heads. Armor doesn’t stop it. Nothing does.
Ridium. Buried underground. No longer.
There isn’t blood at first. It’s too quick for that. The noises alone are enough to send me into a dizzying shock. The agents freeze in horrific, unnatural positions before the blades retract into the dirt, leaving massive incisions.
Then comes the crimson. Blood spilling onto the dirt, quickly darkening the brown.
I watch in horror as all seven agents topple to the ground in lifeless heaps. Skandar stands in the middle, looking like he’s about to faint.
I can’t quite process it. My mind’s still stuck several seconds in the past. Seven agents, dead. Morse. Bergmann. Gone.
Skandar stumbles over to meet us, face drained of color.
Theo closes his fist. He wavers in place before letting out one last chuckle. I turn to see the red fade from his eyes. Before anyone can say a word, he sinks to his knees. His face plants into the dirt. I watch his shoulders rise and fall. He’s unconscious, but alive.
Everything’s quiet. Nothing but the swarm on the horizon.
We bunch together instinctively, staring at the bodies of the fallen Academy Agents, trying to understand it. Their eyes stretch open, staring at the sun. Soon they’ll be barbequed in this heat, cooked meat for whatever predator wants to swoop down and get them. I never liked Bergmann, and what little I knew of Morse I liked him even less, but they didn’t deserve to die. Not like this.
My bracelet buzzes. So does Cassius’s. They tremble like they’re applauding the scene around them, like they have minds of their own. Cassius and I look at each other.
Black. The daggers from the ground, the seamless bands wrapped around our wrists. I know he’s thinking it, too. It’s more than just the visual. It’s instinctive. It all fits together.
Ridium.
I grab my chest and feel the indentations of the symbols beneath my shirt. I am already here.
A blast of triple-digit heat throws my hair to the side. My bracelet settles, but I feel it in my heart, now. I don’t know if I’m making things better or worse. Have I set something terrible in motion just by coming back to the Fringes? Why didn’t Alkine tell me about this “fork” before? If the possible consequences are so horrible, I should have been the first to know.
I repeat Morse’s words over and over in my head. The troubled look on Skandar’s face lingers with me. And then I remember the red in Theo’s eyes, the same red that carved this warning into my skin.
I’m being followed. These aren’t just random events. It’s because of me.
I don’t know what step to take.
Legs shaking, I take a seat on the ground. The heat will consume me if I stay put much longer, but I can’t move. Maybe Alkine was right after all. Maybe I’m dangerous. To myself. To everyone.
I close my eyes. It could be better if I sat here and did nothing. Me and the wind. I can’t hurt anybody if I’m dead.
28
Cassius leapt into leader mode. It was the only thing he knew to do. He didn’t want to consider what had just happened, but they had to move before the heat of the Fringes got to them. The full horror of it all could be analyzed once they were safe.
“Rodriguez.” He turned to Eva. “Get us access to one of the Academy ships. Keep the radar operational. If we tamper with it, it’ll be a dead giveaway that these Agents are gone.”
Eva stared at him for a moment, lip shaking. Then, without a word, she grabbed Skandar’s arm and pulled him with her toward the line of ships.
“I can help.” Avery ran after them, eager to be away from the bodies.
Cassius yanked Fisher from the ground. “Come on.”
“That was Ridium,” he said. “It was… it was underground. How’s that even possible? Ryel said it only exists on Haven.”
“I don’t know.
“And Theo… his eyes. It was like he was possessed.”
Cassius frowned. “Madame warned me about him. Just like she used to tell me I was special. It’s the same with Theo. Special means dangerous to her.”
“He’s a Shifter,” Fisher continued, “isn’t he? Like Ryel was talking about.”
“Maybe.”
“He… they’re all dead. Except Skandar.”
“Skandar wasn’t armed.” He craned his neck to look back at the cruiser. No explosions or fire. Yet. “He wasn’t a threat to him.”
Without another word, Cassius stepped away, heading toward the cruiser.
Fisher tensed. “Where are you going?”
“Just wait.” He moved past Theo’s body, then Ryel’s, and climbed up the ramp until he was in the cruiser’s cabin once again. He bolted toward the weapons cabinet and grabbed the closest stunner. Tucking it in the waist of his trousers, he pulled another and gripped it in his hand.
Then he bounded down the ramp and approached Fisher. Stopping over Theo’s unconscious body, he fired two rounds of stun darts straight into the boy’s back. They stuck in his skin, steadily releasing tranquilizer.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re taking him with us,” he said. “Now that Ryel’s gone, we need someone on the inside. If Theo really is a Shifter, then that means he’s from Haven.”
“But Shifters-”
“Are part of the Authority,” Cassius interrupted. “I know.” He looked down at the kid. “Which makes this a hundred times worse. But if we leave him here, we’re not going to get any of the answers we need.”
“What if he makes those knives come back?”
Cassius lowered the stunner. “He won’t be waking up again for awhile, let alone attacking us.”
Fisher’s hands shook at his sides. “Do you believe what Morse said? Do you think the Drifters are really talking about me like that?”
“Does it matter? What’s done is done.” He looked at the ground, half expecting more blades of Ridium to pop up and skewer them. “You’re not a bad guy, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Fisher shook his head, then moved to Ryel’s body and kneeled at the Drifter’s side.
Cassius turned to watch him. “It’s no use. That bullet shot right through his heart. Did you see the way he fell?”
“There was so much he could’ve told us.” He turned to meet Cassius’s eyes. “We didn’t have time.”
Cassius tapped his foot. “There’s not much we could’ve done. Considering Madame and everything else.”
“He wanted me to build an army. He was so disappointed.”
Cassius moved closer. “He’s gone. We need to move.”
“Just wait a second.” Fisher leaned in closer. “I want to check him. There might be something we missed.”
He watched Fisher scan the contours of Ryel’s legs with his eyes, settling on a single pocket stitched into the siding of his blood-stained clothing. Hand shaking, he reached down and unbuttoned it. As soon as he slipped his fingers into the pocket, he recoiled. “It’s like ice. There’s something in there, but it’s freezing.”
“Go on.”
